Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006

I called at noon and they said that if you bring it in right away they can do it. That was a bit of a surprise. A pleasant surprise. I wanted to get the brakes on the Matrix serviced while we were in Raleigh because we never seem to stay anywhere long enough to make an appointment. I decided to wait while the work was being done on the car since it would make it a lot less hassle for everyone else. And hey, what else do I really have to do anyway, right? It turns out that everything went very well. The Toyota dealer actually offers free WiFi in their very nice waiting room so I was able to get lots of blogging done while the Matrix went under the knife. I also squeezed in a test drive while I was at it. They had a Prius, the popular gas-electric hybrid car from Toyota, on the lot and I have been very curious about these cars. Normally you can never get a chance to test drive these cars because they are sold out before they even arrive at the dealership. I asked why they happened to have some on the lot and the salesman told me that the rebates you used to receive for buying a hybrid car had been dramatically reduced. Money talks I guess. Anyway, I took the Prius out for a spin and it was great. Lots of room. Quiet, along with a smooth ride. But the part I liked best was the screen on the dashboard. Well, more specifically, the information that was displayed on this screen. You could choose to have it show you a graphic that displays where the power is coming from, and being delivered to, instantaneously. This car has two types of power, a gas engine and an electric motor, so you can get power delivered from either one of these sources, or both at the same time! The screen also indicated via the graphics, if your battery was being recharged when you used the brakes. Plus, it had your up-to-the-second, miles-per-gallon number displayed at the bottom. So here is how it would typically go. If I started off slowly enough it would only use the electric motor. The engine would not even be running so it felt, and sounded, like you were driving a golf cart. But more importantly, the number at the bottom of the screen would be showing 99.9 MPG (2.4 L/100 km). As you dipped into the accelerator a little more, the gas engine would start up immediately and push you forward as commanded by your right foot. At this point you would see the MPG fall back into the below 20 MPG (12 L/100km) territory. But as soon as you evened out your speed, it would not be unusual to reach 50 MPG while cruising. Awesome! Taking off from a stoplight using “normal” acceleration would bring the number into the teens until you started to level off and then it would climb back up again. What really surprised me was while I was cruising on the highway at 60 mph (100 km/h) the screen indicated that I was getting 99.9 MPG (2.4 l/100km). What? That can’t be right. Then I realized I was going downhill. Once we reached the bottom, reality set in and the number dropped down to something more believable. The whole experience was far too cool to a tech-head like me. Even though I am a car enthusiast and I love fast cars, I finally found a car that I think I would have a riot in just trying to drive slowly. I spent almost the whole time watching the screen to see how high I could get the instantaneous mileage to go or how much I could charge up the batteries. Actually, now that I think about it, staring at the screen the entire time I am driving may not be such a good thing. Luckily it is a little out of my price range so that is one less thing for me to worry about. But it was fun while it lasted. Back at the dealership the tech had taken a look at my car he created a list of things that he recommend to be done. I made this appointment only to have my rear brakes fixed, as well as my wipers and oil changed. The fact that they handed me a long list of other items to address did not really derogate much from most other dealership service department experiences I have had. But the one that stood out much more than the others was the recommendation to replace my fan belt. I had just replaced this belt during my previous service stop! It was the newest item on the entire vehicle! That had me wondering just how professional these guys were. I told them to just fix what I had originally told them and don’t worry about the rest. Then, when I finally went out to pick up my car, I noticed that there were no windshield wipers on it anymore. I had asked to have them replaced, not removed. When I inquired as to where my wipers were they apologized profusely and said they would install them right away. I happened to bump into the mechanic who forgot to install the wipers and he said to me, as if he thought it might make me feel better, that the wipers were sitting on my air box under the hood and that he had not noticed them when he closed the hood. Yes, it is so reassuring to know that the mechanic who just removed my wheels and replaced my rear brakes is functioning at that level of thoroughness and with that level of attention to detail. I started to wonder if he had actually put in any new oil … or all the bolts back on the wheels! Now that I think about it, in all the time I have been taking my cars in for repairs, I have only ever encountered one service department that inspired confidence. Why is this industry so overwhelmingly filled with people who don’t seem to have any idea how to treat a paying customer or how to inspire someone to recommend their services? Perhaps this is a good business opportunity … hmmmm.

Today’s word:

derogate \DER-uh-gayt\, intransitive verb:
1. To deviate from what is expected.
2. To take away; to detract; -- usually with 'from'.
3. To disparage or belittle; to denigrate.